The publishing contract for "Sophie's World" was quickly drawn up, and the royalties of ten or sixteen years, in fact, it doesn't matter if they are ten years or five years, anyway, the royalties have reached such a high level, and it is basically impossible to change to a higher one in the future.

Naturally, both sides have to take a lot of words, and finally give in to each side and set the final conditions.

After the contract was signed, Yu Hai patted his chest and said to Zhuang Yan, "Don't worry, you can get the book number in three days, and the final edition will come out in fifteen days, and I have even contacted the printing house, and in half a month, this book will appear on the shelves of major bookstores." ”

This time Yu Hai is very bold, such a thick book, the final price will be between eighty and one hundred, but his first printing is directly set at five million copies.

With so many copies printed for the first time, ordinary printing houses will definitely not be able to give credit to them, so the publishing house must advance funds, at least tens of millions of dollars.

The websites of the literary and art circles have a great business, and there must be hundreds of millions of funds, but with so many funds, they are not afraid that the capital chain will be broken.

Of course, Zhuang Yan has no opinion on the number of first printing, the first printing of five million copies means that he already has tens of millions of income from this book, after all, the manuscript fee is based on the amount of printing, not according to the number of sales.

In fact, if you think about it, in addition to the liquidity in the early stage, the publishing house may be a little difficult, and there will be no risk at all in the future. Zhuang Yan's market appeal has long been proven. In addition, Yu Hai is really optimistic about this book, so he feels that it is no problem to print five million copies for the first time, and maybe it will not be too long before he will have to print it.

This time, the new book will be released first in China, and then the English version will be released, as for other languages such as German, French, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese, we can only read it later.

The English version of Liang Qichao is translating, and when book lovers in English-speaking countries will be able to see this book can be said to depend entirely on the speed of Liang Qichao's translation.

The foreign language version of the book was also signed with Yu Hai, and the number of first printing of the English version had not yet been decided, so they decided to take a look at the situation in China first.

After two days of typesetting and proofreading, the official publication date was set for February 18 of the Gregorian calendar. It happened to be a Sunday, and I was able to rush to the first day of sales. {For those who pay attention to the time, the previous time has been changed.} }

Before the official launch, there was a book launch and book signing, which was scheduled for February 11, a week after the book release, which was also Sunday.

During this period, Zhuang Yan found a time to go to Yingen College alone, which was another of the universities in Yenjing that Zhuang Yan had set to inspect before.

When he went to Yingen University, Zhuang Yan went alone, and even Yao Qian didn't bring him. And he didn't dare to wear sunglasses, so he could only get a pair of black-framed eyes and a peaked cap.

The matter of Sansi Academy just happened, and the students of these schools in Yanjing were very excited, and if they saw someone wearing sunglasses or something, they would definitely come up and take a closer look.

Walking around Yingen University, generally speaking, it is okay, but although the school is not small, there is not much to expand next to it, he carefully calculated, if he has to expand, it is estimated that it will be able to expand one or two hundred acres, and it will be impossible to do more.

Yanjing is a place where every inch of land is valuable, and there are really not many empty spaces, so it is not easy to find a school that can expand a lot.

The Sansi College they went to before was okay, the place was a little off-limit, and there were many undeveloped places on the edge of college students.

Originally, Zhuang Yan was very satisfied with Sansi Academy, but now it seems that something is wrong.

The Ministry of Education called and said that Sansi College suddenly wanted to withdraw from the school integration plan, saying that they could still hold on.

Sansi Academy didn't say the reason, but Zhuang Yan guessed that it had something to do with him going to Sansi Academy. The events of that day were reported in the newspapers, which made Sansi College appear in the public eye.

In particular, the name of the school is linked to Zhuang Yan's name, and many netizens on the Internet are asking everywhere after seeing the news, what is the origin of this Sansi College and why Zhuang Yan wants to pass.

After this wave of publicity, Wu Bo, the chairman of the school, suddenly had confidence, or because of this incident, he had some hope in his heart, the college entrance examination will start in a few months, maybe after this wave of exposure, there will be more people who apply to their school?

Imagine, among many schools with similar scores, students suddenly saw a familiar name, and thought that Zhuang Yan had been to Sansi College before, maybe they would apply for Sansi College.

As for the final result, no one knows, and Wu Bo is not sure, anyway, there are a few months left, and they will not be able to hold out for another half a year.

Zhuang Yan of Yingen Academy was not satisfied, Sansi College suddenly retreated, Zhuang Yan had no choice in Yanjing, so he could only put the school's affairs on hold for the time being, and wait until Yanjing was busy with things, and then go back to Jinling to have a look.

If the school in Jinling is not good, then you can only consider other cities.

"The Man Who Stole the Shadow" has been written for one-third of the book, and about 60,000 or 70,000 words have been written, all of which are still on paper and have not been converted into electronic manuscripts.

The manuscript of "Sophie's World" that he gave to Liang Sicheng before was only two large copies, and the total was only the thickness of the soles of the feet. But this book "The Man Who Stole Shadows" has been written until now, and all kinds of drafts add up, and two large books have been used.

What makes Zhuang Yan feel strange is that in the later period, he has not entered the world of "Camel Xiangzi", it seems that his task is only to go in and meet Xiangzi.

The previous "Kafka by the Sea" is not over yet, and there is such a play here, Zhuang Yan doesn't know why, he can't do anything, the dream is uncontrollable, so he can only wait silently.

Until February 18, after breakfast at about 6 o'clock in the morning, Zhuang Yan and Yao Qian drove past the Xidan Book Building.

They went very early, and the Xidan Book Building hadn't opened yet, but there were many people queuing up at the door. They did not enter through the main entrance, but went directly to the underground garage. Yao Qian made a phone call with the person in charge of the signing meeting, and someone took them to the building.

In fact, the book signing only started at half past nine, and before that, the hour from half past eight to half past nine was the launch of the new book.

However, many book friends still came early, after all, there are countless tragic examples of not getting autographs in the first few times because they came late. And come early to be in the front, and a few more hours of queue is just like that, because when you are late, once there are more people, you may need to queue for more than three or four hours.

Zhuang Yan is also worthy of book friends, after all, few authors will come over so early, and many are late. 11